I turned to Family Ties tonight because video quality of the Three's Company channel waw awful. So i turned to Family Ties to see if it was my TV or was it just the TC channel and it turned out to be TC pluto channel. But I was shocked to final out FT did such a serious ep because I always thought it was a light and happy show. So it took until the last season for viewers to find out that the Keatons lived in a white racist neighborhood?:lol:

That was a Season 7 story. They did get into serious subjects at times, like when Elyse's younger coworker falls for her HARD when she gets back to her architecture work (Season 4), or when "Uncle Ned" (Tom Hanks!) is found to be a "raging" alcoholic (Season 2).

Here are 2 of the actors whose characters are central to the racism 2-parter:

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So it took until the last season for viewers to find out that the Keatons lived in a white racist neighborhood?:lol:

Not just the viewers - it took 15 years for the uber woke Keaton's to notice that they lived in a segregated neighborhood. Just a ridiculously bad episode.

That was a Season 7 story. They did get into serious subjects at times, like when Elyse's younger coworker falls for her HARD when she gets back to her architecture work (Season 4), or when "Uncle Ned" (Tom Hanks!) is found to be a "raging" alcoholic (Season 2).
Plus there is Steven's 3 part heart attack, the 2 parter where Alex's friend dies, Mallory's friend being pregnant, and Elyse's aunt having Alzheimer's.

Almost every sitcom in the 70s, 80s and early 90s had episodes about racism.

The racism 2 parter is on Rewind TV right now (1-2 pm ET) and in a few hours on Antenna TV (5-6 pm ET). Those two networks always each show the same episodes weekdays.

At least the black guy wasn’t a random black guy suddenly out of nowhere. He was a coworker of Steven’s who had occasionally been on the show before.

That was a Season 7 story. They did get into serious subjects at times, like when Elyse's younger coworker falls for her HARD when she gets back to her architecture work (Season 4), or when "Uncle Ned" (Tom Hanks!) is found to be a "raging" alcoholic (Season 2).

Here are 2 of the actors whose characters are central to the racism 2-parter:

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I found out the guy who played the son and those two all died in same year

They did die in the same decade: Rosalind Cash died in 1995, Keith Amos in 1998, and John Hancock in 1992 according to IMDb. These dates are not always accurate of course, viewer-submitted data sometimes needs correction.

They did die in the same decade: Rosalind Cash died in 1995, Keith Amos in 1998, and John Hancock in 1992 according to IMDb. These dates are not always accurate of course, viewer-submitted data sometimes needs correction.

The year for John Hancock is definitely correct. Love & War had premiered that fall and he had been in six episodes when he died unexpectedly

When Family Ties premiered in 1982, the first half of season 1 there were a lot of serious episodes. It was by the second half of season 1 were the tone changed to more lighthearted episodes.

For a bulk of Family Ties run, it was mostly lighthearted episodes. Then in the later year the show went back to doing some serious episodes.

Both Alex's friend (2 parter) who was killed in a car crash, and Mallory's best friend who commited suicide, we never saw these characters. These episodes were from Season 6.

Like already mentioned, at least Gus was a sometimes seen character.
However Gus had 2 younger children in Season 3, in the 2 parter when Andrew is born.

Looks like the Keaton neighborhood wasn’t so great back in season one either (S1 E10)

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Looks like the Keaton neighborhood wasn’t so great back in season one either (S1 E10)

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Goes to show I never watched the show. I thought they never had serious topics going by theme song